Freedonia Market Research Report Analyzes Excipents Industry

US demand forecasts for excipients will advance 4.5 percent annually to $2.9 billion in 2011.  Gains will lag increases in pharmaceutical shipments because virtually all excipients are commodity substances with limited pricing flexibility.  Growth opportunities for excipients will extend to a broad range of compounds and applications.  Gelatin will remain the leading compound for drug encapsulation.  Due to the breadth of existing and potential applications in drug formulations and delivery systems, cellulose derivatives will eventually evolve into the top-selling group of pharmaceutical excipients.  These compounds will command especially strong growth opportunities as fillers, controlled release agents and enteric coatings. These and other industry trends, including market size and market leaders, are presented in Excipients to 2011, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry market research firm.

Ongoing efforts to improve the bioavailability and safety of parenteral and inhalation drugs will boost demand for specialty polymer excipients, especially compounds with sustained-release and targeting properties.  In addition, multi-functional synthetic polymers, such as povidone and methacrylates, will broaden applications in high value-added oral medicines, including disintegrating tablets and sustained-release drug delivery systems.  Through 2011, minerals will command the fastest growth among major groups of pharmaceutical excipients. 

Cost and quality advantages will extend market opportunities for starch-based pharmaceutical excipients, with pregelatinized starch fillers and binders and sodium starch glycolate disintegrants realizing the best sales growth.  Lactose will retain widespread usage as a tablet filler and diluent.  Sorbitol and mannitol will see the strongest demand growth among polyol excipients, the former from uses as a liquid drug diluent, the latter from applications as a diluent in parenteral preparations.

Based on demand value, fillers/diluents will remain the leading application served by excipients, functioning as inert ingredients that improve the bioavailability of oral and parenteral drug formulations.  Capsule manufacturing and tablet and capsule binding will also continue to post high demand given the large percentage of medication produced in solid oral dosage formats.  Among all applications, drug delivery will realize the fastest sales growth as pharmaceutical manufacturers seek to offset the impact of intensifying generic competition through the introduction of new sustained-release and orally disintegrating versions of existing medicines.    

The Freedonia Group is a leading international business research company, founded in 1985, that publishes more than 100 industry research studies annually. This industry analysis provides an unbiased outlook and a reliable assessment of an industry and includes product segmentation and demand forecasts, industry trends, demand history, threats and opportunities, competitive strategies, market share determinations and company profiles.